The Kia Stonic’s name is probably its most distinctive feature. To English ears ‘Stonic’ sounds like a brand of cough mixture, but is probably meant to be inoffensive, absolutely anywhere in the world.
The car is Kia’s entry into the burgeoning baby ‘sports utility vehicle’ market, populated by jacked up hatchbacks with higher seating positions, some 4x4 styling tropes and in certain cases genuine off road kit. Kia reckons these cars will attract 2.2m buyers and that it can sell 10,000 Stonics a year in Britain.
There’s no reason why this thoroughly pleasant, capable car shouldn’t do that. It’s quite handsome, with two- tone bits that don’t jar stylistically, and nicely made and finished inside and out. Although the interior uses a fair amount of hard plastic surfaces, it feels solid and well made and has a few visual touches that are distinctive rather than garish. It could perhaps do with more rear legroom, but is otherwise spacious enough. While we’re in negative mode the boot is rather shallow.
We drove the 1.0, three-cylinder turbo petrol, which sounded a bit busy under acceleration, but settles down to a quiet thrum the rest of the time and goes really well –think 9.9 secs 0-60, which was almost hot hatch territory a few years ago.
The car has very tidy handling and corners with precision, something aided by nice steering. The whole thing is more engaging than you might expect. We were less enamored with the firm-to-jiggly ride however.
One of my colleagues described this car as ’70 per cent Audi A3.’ I can see its appeal for people who want a change from an identikit small hatchback.
Details: Kia Stonic 2 1.0 T-GDI
Top Speed: 115mph, 0-60 9.9seconds
Combined fuel consumption: 56.5mpg
Emissions: 56.5g/km
Price: £17,345.
